Nilacharal

Series of Arrests

As soon as Jayalalitha took over the government,she ordered the arrest of the former Deputy speaker Mr.Parithi Ilamvazhudhi on an election-related violence.She also took the state by surprise when she ordered the arrest of her erstwhile foster son on serious offenses including drug trafficking and attempt to murder. The opinion was divided then as some interpreted these two arrest orders as the demonstration of her impartiality and some suspected that it was the prelude to the arrest of many in the opposition camp that were to follow.

The latter suspicion gained more ground when the reports started appearing that she was contemplating to charge sheet and arrest the Mayor of Chennai Mr Stalin. Her intentions became clear when she actually arrested the former Minister Mr Ponmudi on the rice issue. It was followed by the arrest of the Sun TV reporter Mr.Suresh on serious allegations. All that he did was to collect the facts on the rice issue by going to the godown where the rice was stored. He did so because the government's point of view is that the rice is of bad quality. The sensible thing for the government was to call a press meet and show them the rice stored in the godown. On the contrary the reporter was arrested for doing what the government in the first place ought to have done. Having acted atrocious, Ms Jaya declined to receive the memorandum from the Press Reporters' Guild of Chennai demanding the release of the Sun TV reporter. The Chennai Press Club, Journalists's Associations from different parts ofTamilnadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Pondicherry have condemned this action of the government. Her political advisor and the renowned Spin Doctor Mr.Cho Ramaswamy and the reputed editor Mr N Ram have criticized this misuse of power.

Former CM's arrest

When I was writing the early portions of this article, I mentioned about the imminent arrests of leaders from opposite camp. By the time I finished this article, the fear was proved right by Karunanidhi's arrest.

The atrocious way in which Mr.Karunanidhi's arrest was carried out in the wee hours of 30th June morning (1.45 am) is highly condemnable. If Ms.Jaya has reasons to arrest him on the alleged corruption in fly over construction deal, she must make them public immediately. It is prudent on Mr Karunanidhi's part to go before the law and prove that he and his government is uncorrupted. If Jaya is in an effort to taint DMK and Mr Karunanidhi, she is taking a very risky step. If the reasons are flimsy and turns out they are politically motivated, she would invite the wrath of people more than what she faced in May 1996.

In a democracy, Damocles sword hangs over the leader not only when he or she is in power but also after he/ she goes out of power. That is what TN is demonstrated in 1996 and also now in 2001. But these should not turn out to be sheer polictial revenges. If Jaya could prove Karunanidhi and his government deliberately erred in the flyover construction deal, there is nothing to crib about what happened in the early hours of 30th morning except the way the arrest operation was carried out. The arrest operation could have been carried out in a more courteous way. However, it would do well for Ms Jaya, at least till she gains total confidence of the people to concentrate on people-centric policies rather than DMK-centric issues. This author is highly pained the way the arrest operation was carried out although he is not questioning the reasons as it is for the court of law to worry about. If there were solid reasons for this arrest, then democracy is on the upswing in Tamilnadu rather than going on downslide. If it is with bad motives, it is the assault on people and not on Mr Karunanidhi.

It is heartening that the entire country and the press agitated against the way the arrest was made. Moopannar, Ramdoss, Congress, CPM and CPI leaders have criticized the government for its improper and discourteous behaviour displayed during the arrest of the former Chief Minister. The Prime Minister, the President and the NDA leaders swiftly swung into action and conducted a meeting on 30th June evening and this was followed by the Cabinet meeting on the noon of 1st July.

Issues behind the arrest

While every right thinking person is shocked and disappointed over the way the arrest was carried out, there are a few fundamental issues that were thrown by this arrest episode. The versions from the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) and the Chief Minister are contracting each other. PMO says that the TN CM remained incommunicado while the PM wanted to contact the Chief Minister on 30th June to find out the facts. Whereas the CM maintains that she was willing to talk to PM on 30th June and no telephone call came from PMO. The Chief Secretary of the State did not oblige to send a report to the Prime Minister in spite of the order to do so by the Centre. The centre became helpless and was pushed to the extent that it had to issue a whip to the Governor to send a formal report before 9 a.m. on 1st July 2001. ....more